What life is about
by twbird18
Summary: What Parker learns about life. Parker's thoughts during various jobs and how she changes over the years.
1. The Nigerian Job

A/N I just watched the entire show for the first time and I'm mostly done listening to the show commentaries, I'm planning to write a little from Parker's POV during each episode, just sort of testing it out with this first piece, I'm sure it will take me a little work to get into writing her, but I view it as a challenge to write about how she evolves over the series.

In the beginning, it was all about the money. I'm a thief, obviously it was about the money. Why steal if it isn't to get money? And I'm the perfect thief, the one who never gets caught and always finishes a job even if people do think that I'm insane. I always worked alone, until the one time that I didn't.

Then, I learned that maybe I wasn't so perfect. I would've definitely missed the haircuts and maybe that would've gotten me caught, but probably not. I mean 1. I'm really quick and 2. I would never be doing this type of job alone. All the same, I realized that maybe I could learn something here to make me better.

When Hardison hands me a check for 32 million dollars, I can't believe it. It's the most money I will probably ever make from one job& that's saying a lot. I'm very good at what I do, some say I'm the best there is. It was, however, a little bit fun to do something different, to not just be the perfect little thief that Archie taught me to be. So, while it was still all about the money for me, I thought maybe, just maybe it could be a little about something else. That's when I decided to do it again.


	2. Homecoming Job

When Hardison shows me my office, I feel a little flutter of excitement. I mean, I'm not the type of person who ever expected to have an actual office with my name on it. It feels kind of cool and so I take note when Hardison mentions we should bring something in. Pictures I can't do. I mean who takes photos of themselves and it's not like I have friends or family to put up, but a plant I can get. In fact, I get one that night. It takes me less than 2 minutes to acquire it. Really it took about 30 seconds. There isn't actually any security protecting the plants, but I spent a little while deciding which one to grab.

I deposit it on my desk that night and then explore the offices a little while no one is around. In the morning everyone shows up like this is a regular job and we have our first meeting. It was pretty boring but at least there was food. There doesn't seem like much for me to do on this job, but I do agree with Nate that this guy deserves something good to happen for him.

I do a quick and easy lift depositing the doctored papers into the hopper with a little smile. I just stole a law and it was simple. Not even a little challenging, probably someone should do something about that.

Finally, something exciting happens. When I pick the lock on the shipping crate, I'm expecting something pretty standard...guns or stolen artwork, but what I get is a thousand times better...MONEY! An entire crate full of money, I grab a few handfuls of it to take back to the office for planning and then we lock it back up.

God, I love money so much. The smell of it, the crisp way a new bill feels against your skin, just a little rough like a very fine piece of sandpaper, the way they stick together at first...I can always recognize counterfeit money right away. It's never the same as the real thing, but still Nate insists on testing it doubting my ability to recognize it perfectly. Pretty stupid waste of time and then I have to listen to Spencer make fun of the way I'm studying the money. Really, what is his problem, I wasn't doing anything to him. Then, I'm shocked out of playing with the money by Nate. In fact, I think everyone else was shocked too. It's hard to remember that the job is not to take all that delicious money, but Sophie is right, it would be minorly difficult to move that amount of cash undetected even with all of us working together.

Nate tells us the new plan and it makes up for losing the cash a little bit because I get to set an explosion off which is probably my third favorite thing in life behind money and free-falling. But it is just a tiny explosion and, there isn't even anything inside of the crate to catch on fire.

Boy are these 2 guys stupid. They just confess right out to stealing the money. Idiots, they definitely didn't deserve to keep it after that. What kind of thief tells everyone what they did? That's like one of the first things you learn, not to ever talk about what you've stolen. It's harder to get caught if you never acknowledge doing anything.

At the end of the job, we drop off the money we did take and I feel a brief flash of something at their joy. I ask Hardison what I'm supposed to do with this plant thing, I mean it doesn't so anything. He just laughs and I'm not sure why, but later after we've all split up for the day, my cool new thief phone buzzes and I see Hardison has sent me a message asking what kind of plant I got. When I tell him I don't, he asks for a picture. Since I'm not really doing anything, I make my way across a few rooftops and back into our offices to snap a picture. After sending it to Hardison, he sends back some links about the plant I got and how to take care of it. I guess I'm supposed to water it and feed it occasionally. Plus, it needs a bit of sunlight. I think about it for a few minutes and then position the plant closer to the window and dump in a cup of water for the day. This seems like a lot of work for something that just sits there...


	3. Two-horse Job

A/N I'm on vacation and typing these from my tablet/phone so I apologize if the formatting is off on these.

I don't know why everyone acts like it is crazy that I'm afraid of horses. Everyone is afraid of something. It's perfectly normal. I really did want permission to not participate in this job, but Nate just acted like I should get over it already so, I guess I'm doing this job with everyone else. Plus, it seemed kind of important to Eliot.

I kind of love it when Hardison does something electronicky to annoy people. The little stunt with Sterling was pretty funny until we had to move the van, but then I didn't want him to know I thought what he could do was awesome so I asked him about opening the lock later. That seemed to annoy him, that I didn't understand what he did exactly, but I mean who really understands what he does. How can he not know that none of us have any clue what he does all day?

I can not believe I had to crawl into the barn. No one seems to care that I don't want to be near the horses and of course I knew they could hear what I was saying. That was kind of the point. Crawling through a duct into a stable isn't exactly challenging or requiring special skills. Someone else could have done it, but I guess that it worked out. The horse really wasn't all that scary, but I still don't like them much


	4. Miracle Job

Last night, we all went to Sophie's latest play. God she's so terrible. I didn't want to go, but Hardison told me it was important that we go so she would know we supported her and I guess that is a good reason so I went because I like Sophie even though I'm not sure why that means I have to suffer through her plays. Then I was supposed to say something nice to her about her role in the play, but I didn't know what to say and Eliot and Hardison were looking at me like I shouldn't have said what I did, but she didn't seem very upset by it. Maybe I can make it up to her later somehow. I just do not understand how she can act so well until she gets up on stage and how she doesn't know that she is really terrible.

We have to help Nate even though this seems kind of crazy even for us. On the bright side, I got to swap the guy's medication and he was pretty funny trapped in that elevator. And I got to mess with the priest a little too. Both of those things were fun. It's fun to do non-thief things sometimes. I mean not like jumping off a building fun, but better than a lot of things Nate makes me do like survellience.

Sophie and I end up with a little free time so I let her "drag" me shopping with her. I wanted to make up for possibly hurting her feelings earlier and really even though I don't really love shopping, I do like following Sophie around and watching her in action. She buys me this grey shirt that has a million buttons on the front for no apparent reason. I make sure to wear it the next day so she can see I'm using it. She's always trying to get me to wear dressier clothes, but they are uncomfortable and usually too bright. What if I end up having to work...most of the clothes she picks out are completely unsuitable for my line of work, but she doesn't seem to care about that at all.

Nate said I had to wear all white in case someone turned around so I would look more like an angel. Which if you thought about it was hilarious because what thief wears white and who in the world would ever mistake me for an angel. Then, while I was waiting for the priest to finish so I could drop down Hardison started checking my straps and as I climbed the ladder both boys unnecessarily clipped things to my belt. As if I have never done these things on my own before, but I don't make a big deal about it. I know they are just trying to be helpful and show some support. And funny enough Nate turns about to be right, a little girl does turn as I'm lifting the statue and she does believe I'm an angel


	5. Bank Job

I do really like working with the team. I mean even during the most boring parts of our job there's someone around to annoy. I especially liked the look on Hardison's face when I lit the basket of trash on fire. Fire is fun, but not as much fun as watching someone else's face when you light the fire and then the bank gets robbed and Hardison shows how truly clueless he is with his dumb comment about Nate leaving Sophie in bank. He would never do that, leave her to fend for herself. I'm always surprised when the people who are more "normal" than me miss things like that. I'm not actually as unaware of things as people seem to think, it's just easier to pretend like I don't know what's going on than to have to talk things out with people.

Then it happens, Nate asks me to rob a bank that's already getting robbed & Hardison surprisingly knows about the chutes to get in. It's not a super exciting robbery, but it is something I've never done before. It's pretty simple. I just shoot in, grab the briefcase from them and slide back out, but in the process I have the briefest of conversations with the robber and I feel responsible for saving his wife. He seems so helpless when he gives me the briefcase.

I'm glad we're able to rescue the wife & get the original target in the process, but I'm surprised when Sophie compliments my acting. I'm pretty bad it normally, but pretending to be FBI really wasn't that hard. I feel good that Sophie notices I did a good job.


	6. Stork Job

I suck at this, picking up guys. I don't know why anyone thought this was a good idea. It's really hard pretending to be interested in someone I don't like at all. He's using kids and he was standing so close to me, I just couldn't handle it so I stabbed him with the closest thing I could find and left the room via the closest exit. I wanted to run away, but I knew that wasn't the right answer. I should have trusted the team and stayed in character or told them I couldn't do it. So I went back to our place after I figured out what I was going to do. Unsurprisingly, they all thought I wasn't coming back to them, but then they also didn't seem surprised when I appeared in the room either.

I know screwed up, but I can't believe they did a lift without me & now I'm stuck fetching things for Nate, actually fetching, not stealing them. I try to talk to Hardison about it because he's usually the most sympathetic, but I don't get his whole "we're more than a team" speech. I just know I don't want to be doing this, but then we're interrupted by Sophie in a Nun's habit which is pretty funny and worth sticking around to watch.

I don't believe Hardison when he says he came on his own,but I kind of freak out when I find the kids. I usually don't think about these things very much, but then I walked in on a room of orphans and all I can think is how much is sucks. A room full of children with no families, no one who loves them, but at least they probably also don't get hit. Then I find the guns. This entire job is just getting worse by the second. I manage to get out of the warehouse without freaking out to bad, but then Hardison stops the van.

I can't believe Hardison thinks we can save these kids. People don't get saved, but I admit Hardison's story kind of gets to me. He had a good foster mom, a good childhood, but that doesn't happen usually. I should know. I had like a million foster homes before I finally ran away. None of them were good, some were passable, but mainly they were all terrible in their own way. No kids should have to go through those things. Better to stay in an orphanage. At least those are kind of regulated. You get food, a place to sleep & school. I nearly break down when Hardison tells me he likes how I turned out. How can anyone like me? I'm crazy. I steal everything. I can't talk about things like a normal person. I don't feel like normal people do. I'm just really good at one thing & right now the team doesn't even trust me to do that one thing on my own. I'm glad Hardison gets back into the truck after that sentence. I can't talk about it. I can barely stop from crying.

I try to let it go. I really do. I want to believe that the kids are better off out of foster care & that we will make a plan to come back and rescue them for real, but I don't believe it and I can't let it go. Those kids looked terrible. I want to help them like no one ever helped me. Someone should help them. So I go back to get them. I don't really have a plan, but I go back anyway.

Lucky for me, Hardison is right. We are more than a team and they come to find me. Otherwise, I think this would have been the time I got caught. I'm glad they realized I was missing and figured out what I was doing. It was impulsive and crazy, but then so it putting a tracker in the shoes - as if I wouldn't notice that eventually.

And I got to take out a little of my aggression with Eliot not around. I mean I'm not sure what the team thought I did before we had a hitter, but obviously I know how to fight. I never get to hit anything anymore except for practicing with Eliot, but I am so happy when Sophie appears. We get the kids loaded into the bus and then I totally think I'm going to die and I was willing to do it to save those kids, but Hardison saves the day. Who ever thought that would happen? And he blows up an entire building. How awesome is that?

We saved the kids and I totally got what Hardison meant that we were more than a team. We could be there for each other even when we didn't agree with what they were doing. No one has ever done that for me before.


	7. Wedding Job

Nate doesn't want to take this case. I'm pretty sure he's scared of the Mob for some reason. I don't really understand what the problem is or why we should treat this case any differently than normal, but I did like the little girl and I would like to help her so I vote with everyone else as Nate tries to persuade us not to take the case.

As I listen to everyone else talk about how difficult getting into Masconi's house will be, I'm reminded again that not everyone can do what I do. I mean the guy has a good security system, but it's still just a house. It would take a little more finesse than some places, but I have no doubts that I can get in. There's a reason why people know who I am. I was going to say something, but am distracted by Hardison pointing out the FBI presence. I didn't notice the van, but it wouldn't really affect what I would do. It does however change Nate's plans for us and I'm pretty excited to play an FBI agent again. It was fun last time. Even Sophie thought I did good so I bet it will be just as fun this time.

Hardison introduces me as being fresh out of Quantico, which works for me. I don't even have to pretend to really know anything. This McSweeten guy is kind of cute and sweet. I spend a little time messing with him, patting his chest and questioning him about random things that catch my attention. I stay right up next to him so he stays focused on me and not Hardison. Sophie says I should work to my strengths and while I don't really like people to touch me, I have no such issue with touching other people or invading their space. I've been repeatedly told that I need to learn some personal space boundaries, but Sophie told me that I can use that on some guys to keep them focused on me and it certainly seemed to work with McSweeten. On the way out of the van, I give him his badge back and throw in a wink for good measure. He seems sad to see me go. Hopefully, I get to see him again one day. It was kind of fun talking to him.

As soon as I looked at Sophie, I knew I shouldn't have made the comment about the bridesmaid's size even if it was true. I don't really get why people ask questions they know the answer to if they don't want a real answer. It's stupid. The girl looked fine. If she has a problem with her size she should do something about it like go to the gym or eat less or whatever people do for that kind of thing. I really don't understand the problem. The girl really did look fine. At least as good as she could in that ugly dress she had to wear.

I'm having a really hard time zipping up my dress with the gloves on when Hardison comes into the room. I don't hesitate to have him pull up the zipper. I don't really understand why he turns away in the first place. It's not like I was standing around naked. And then he surprises me by telling me I look good in the dress. I hate dresses. They are uncomfortable and you can move around very well in them especially if you put on nice shoes. Plus, you really can't get anything done in a dress so I'm surprised when he says I look good and can't stop myself from asking if he's serious. Then he tells me I look perfect and we have one of those brief moments where I feel like I should say something to him or that I'm completely missing what's happening between us, but it's broken by that stupid lady yelling. I cannot stop think about the fact that Hardison thinks I look perfect. No one has ever said something like that to me before. I liked it. He seemed serious about it, not joking.

I really think these people are going to get me killed. I keep doing these jobs because I'm having, for the most part, the most fun ever, but I swear running around in a dress with these stupid gloves on and constantly thinking about what Hardison said to me is not helpful. I can't get out of the screening room because I was slowed down by these things and I can't use any normal escape routes because of the clothes/wedding that's happening outside. Finally, I realize I can just play the drunken bridesmaid and get out of the room while briefly saving Masconi.

I decide to have a little funny with Hardison, for all the trouble he's caused me today with his earlier comment. While I don't have a lot of experience or patience for this kind of thing, I do kind of get the effect I gave on some guys. When he asks how I escaped from the screening room, I tell Hardison I said I was meeting him to have sex there. The look on his face is priceless. I almost start grinning, but just manage to stop myself. It's just easier when people think I'm completely clueless then I don't have to try and sort out which things I do and don't understand correctly. Too many missed things growing up made it so I just don't have a good frame of reference for things most people accept as normal


	8. Mile High Job

The jobs with dead kids make me the angriest. They all deserve better than what happened to them and I'm always happy when Nate finds these jobs even though they usually mean I have to do a lot of boring non-thief stuff.

I am surprised when Hardison doesn't show up for the job. It's not like him, but we can't sit around and wait for him. It is pretty irritating to have to walk up 30 flights of stairs, but then I get to use explosive so I get over it pretty quickly. Plus, let's face it walking up that many stairs is really on a hardship for Nate - who should really try to get in better shape.

I don't really want to be a flight attendant. In fact, while I would never admit it to anyone, flying isn't my favorite thing. I mean I'm not scared of it just it's a little like being in a trap. There is really only 1 escape route from a plane and it's a pretty difficult one to implement. Jumping out of a plane full of people is no easy matter. Also, there's not much to do on a plane. I mean you can lift a few things, but you mainly have to wait until near the end of the flight for that so it's not noticed too soon.

On this particular flight, I have to pretend to do things for these people I couldn't care less about and that one girl is super irritating. Flights aren't that scary, just boring. And I really don't get the whole ginger ale thing. Obviously it's not working, so why does she keep asking for them? Also, I still don't know what Eliot's issue is. No reason to act like I don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to currency. Clearly, I know what the 'smoking gun' is not gold bars, but that doesn't mean it's USD$$ either. One day, I'm going to get tired of pretending I don't what he's going on about. And I can't believe that Nate won't let me take the Stradivarius. They won't miss it until we're long gone.

Of course the target turns out to be the ginger ale girl and now I have to pretend to be nice to her. Then, it turns out we are completely wrong about everything and I get to go into the bottom of the plane. Which is kind of fun, but then it all goes to shit and I end up looking at a bomb. This plane is totally going to crash with us on it and I have to listen to Hardison going on about how great he is again. You'd think that by now he would know that hacking into a system remotely isn't really that hot, but landing a plane kind of is. Though I'll never tell him that. Plus he totally ruins it by continuing to brag about how he saved our lives. Which we probably wouldn't have needed him to do if he had shown up in the beginning like he was supposed to. Then we would have known what was happening the entire time. Even I know you can't take credit when you almost get your team killed.


	9. Snow Job

I eat fortune cookies for breakfast. What's the big deal? I'm an adult. I can eat whatever I want. I don't know why people act like that's crazy. I mean Nate is drunk before breakfast and no one acts like that's crazy and even I know that's not normal. Plus I think Hardison totally eats gummy frogs for breakfast.

Stealing a mountain sounds like fun. There are a lot of fun things to do on a snow-covered mountain. Then, Nate makes me hang of the ski lift. As if that would ever happen. One, it's not that far of a drop and two, I can get back up in the seat in like 5 seconds. So stupid. I can't believe people fall for these things. I'm totally getting in some extreme sports why we're up here. I have a little free time after my fake accident.

I get to have a tiny amount of fun in Miami too. Eliot throws me up in the air like it's nothing and then I jump out a window. Eliot was there to catch me, but seemed to think that I shouldn't just be jumping without looking, but seriously it was only 2 stories. I would have been fine, plus it's way more fun to jump with no safety net.

Nate is getting stranger and stranger. I kind of think that maybe he might actually be drinking too much. I really don't like it when we consider putting something in my head even though I know we wouldn't really do that. Nate is definitely creepy lately. We can't just go around playing with the dead. It's weird and gross.

I really don't get what Sophie is going on about. I just have to lie down and pretend to get a scan of my head. Plus, I don't know what my dad's death has to do with anything. I mean, I know we don't really talk about our pasts, but seriously she should know that I don't miss my parents. Pretending to be dying really is as easy as I thought it would be. Then Nate gives away our money. I will personally kill him. He is out of control. I can't believe that Eliot grabs me and keeps me from getting our money back. Then, Sophie has to separate us all. I don't like it. I don't like that Nate is acting weird and I don't like that it feels like we're falling apart. We're a team. We should work together not be certain that one of us is about to screw the rest of us over. It's like being in a controlled fall, but then having someone cut your lines. I want to trust them, but I'm still not certain that I can .


	10. 12-Step

I don't really know why I'm the one that has to go to rehab for this job. I really don't like therapy or drugs. Sophie gives me a back story, which I handily write on my arm to remember. I wonder if I really could be a kleptomaniac. I do take things without thinking about it, something I've really had to work on since I started working with the team. It is kind of interesting listening to Sophie try to get Nate to talk about his problems. At least there's that.

I really don't want to take the medicine they give me, but I know I'm not supposed to cause a scene and can't figure a way out of it so I take the medicine they give me. It's not the first time I've been given medicine before, but I don't like it. It makes me feel weird and out of control. When I was a kid, they stopped giving them to me eventually because no one likes to medicate children and they thought I would get over his death, but really I just got better at pretending.

The drugs make me talk too much and I start sharing real things about my past. Not very much, but still more than I would normally ever say. I nearly give up my cover story and I don't know why Sophie didn't stop me. She should have stopped me. I hadn't thought about my first foster home in a long time. That first one really wasn't that terrible. Their marriage just wasn't working for them so eventually I moved on.

Turns out I really do have an issue with stealing and the medicine doesn't help with it. I steal a gun from guys in the hallway. Then when Nate leaves, I refuse to go with him. I don't really know why. I feel like I'm learning something here and I just don't want to go with Nate who I don't think can help me. Though, I am really surprised when he touches me. I'm serious about him not touching people. Truthfully, no one really touches me ever. I'm not big on being touched and they respect that about me. The team doesn't force stuff on me.

I'm kind of surprised when Sophie comes to get me. I turned Nate down when he tried to get me to leave. I sort of thought they would leave me at Second Act until I was done or maybe not take me back at all, but then I realize that Nate probably never told them that I didn't want to leave. That's something he would do. His little way of keeping me with the team. Also, by the time Sophie comes to get me, I'm kind of bored with these people. How can they not recognize the Cairo museum? And I've been on medicine long enough to not be able to stop myself from hugging Eliot and Hardison when I get out. I really did miss them. The thought surprises me. I've never really missed anyone, but I'm genuinely happy to see everyone. Though I will admit to being relieved when the drugs wear off. I don't have a lot of control over what I say or do on the medicine and it's pretty impossible to be a good thief if you're out of control.


	11. Jury Job

These people are completely ridiculous. I would never do anything that would hurt them. I cannot believe that they would think I would do something that might kill them intentionally. I can't believe that they are all freaking out because they thought they would get decapitated. As long as they do what I tell them, there was never a chance of that happening. I like to have fun. It's exhilarating, but I'm not trying to kill myself or anyone else. Who does Nate think he is forcing me to go to jury duty? He wouldn't make anyone else do those things.

Then, no one believes me when I try to tell them something is happening in the trial. I really don't understand what the problem is. I asked for help like you're supposed to, but no one is listening to me. I don't know how to make them listen to me. I know I'm right. There is something fishy going on. I'm really surprised when Eliot comes to help me. And I'm really happy when the team sees that something is really going on and I'm right. Nate acknowledges in his own way that I was right and he was wrong which makes me incredibly happy for some reason.

Immediately I regret taking this job. Nate wants me to talk to everyone on the jury, like actually talk and make people like me. I don't really do that. I hate talking to people and I don't understand what they are talking about most of the time. It's really hard to pretend like care about what they are saying. Small talk isn't really my thing. Plus, I have to show appropriate emotions which, I don't always feel.

The look on Eliot's face when I tell him there is a razor in his apple is hilarious. I can't believe he falls for that. I mean how would I have put a razor blade in the apple. Really, I was just tired of Sophie's boring lessons. She has bulletin boards and index cards and everything. It's like being in school.

Luckily, I do get to do one thing I'm good at, set up the jury foreman. It was simple. I stole so many things I couldn't even remember who I got them from and none of them noticed. It was pretty fun. Then, like magic I'm the new jury foreman. I don't really know why anyone would want me to be in charge of anything, but now I am.

I get to watch Hardison in action. It was cute. Hardison really knows how to look at the little details of things. He thinks about things that most people don't notice. I mean trying to get the yearbook introduced into evidence was funny. It does mean that I have to sit around and watch him talk about incredibly boring things for the entire day, but at least he's fun to look at.

Then, Peggy tells me a secret. It's awesome. I don't think anyone has ever done that before. I must be getting better at this. Someone actually thinks I'm worth talking to about their life. I like it even though I'm pretending to be a vegetarian. Why in the world would Hardison make me an alias that is a vegetarian?

I'm really into this Alice character. It's kind of fun. I sort of get why Sophie does this. I get to wear different clothes and pretend things that I wouldn't normally do. I don't really get why the guys keep trying to insist that I am Alice. I mean I know that I'm playing Alice, but I'm just pretending. She's not me. I'm not a vegetarian bookkeeper, but then I'm surprised when Sophie tells me that everyone is pretending, except for Peggy who actually likes me. How does the most normal one actually like me? Sophie thinks that I can do this so I'm going to do my best.

When Hardison rips that guy apart, it's fascinating. I know he hacked something to get that information, but it's the first time I've seen him use that information in person to bring someone down. He makes this guy look preposterous. How could anyone believe anything he says now? And he's right, being on the jury wasn't as bad as I thought. I feel like can do this, get the jury to vote with me. This persuasion thing isn't actually as hard as I thought it was. It's sort of like lock picking. You just have to figure out what makes them work and then give them that and they do what you want. It's not easy, but it's also not impossible. In fact, it was actually enjoyable. We brought down the bad guys and helped people who deserved it and I made a friend, a real friend.


	12. 1st David

We're going to get revenge for Nate and it involves theft. Best of all, I get to break into something without sitting around and planning it out or explaining it to everyone else. It's kind of annoying to have to always explain what I'm going to do to the rest of the team. As always, Sophie has extra dresses and shoes everywhere so getting into the party is no problem. As soon as Nate had started describing the facility that housed the statue, I had started figuring out how to get into it. I'm not kidding when I tell people it's what I do instead of crosswords. It's fun figuring out ways around security systems and most of them aren't even that difficult for me to solve.

I didn't have to make out with Hardison. I could have just hidden, but it was way more fun to kiss Hardison. I have been wondering what it would be like and this seemed like a good opportunity to find out. Though it would have been better if he would have just gone with it and stopped trying to talk about it. Guy does not know how to stop talking. Most men would have been ecstatic to be kissing me. Plus as an added bonus, Eliot and Nate thought maybe I was making out with Sophie which was funny. I can tell immediately that this is going to be a problem. He's going to keep trying to talk about it and while I knew I wanted to kiss him, I don't really know what that means and I don't really want to talk about it. I've never really had to think about these things before. It's not like I spent a lot of time in one place with the same people before now.

Hardison helps me grab the statue - though I really did wish he would stop talking. It makes it really hard to focus on what I'm trying to do. Even though I'm good at what I do, it does require a certain amount of focus. Figuring out how to stop sensors and cartwheeling through laser grids isn't exactly simple. It does require a certain amount of effort to do even though I know it looks easy when someone watches me. I mean I do it because I enjoy it even when it is difficult, it's still fun. I throw the David at him because I can and I want him to focus on something else besides the kissing.

It was so exhilarating stealing an $8 Million statue with no planning. I never get to just take things anymore. I missed it, the high I get when I do things like that. Then, Nate and Sophie go and ruin it for me. I know immediately something is wrong from Sophie's voice change, but I don't know what the problem is.

When I jump off that bridge onto the moving truck, it's intoxicating. And then the moment is ruined when I open the door and find evil Nate waiting for me. How is this happening? How did we not see this coming? I'm not worried yet, but without my earpiece I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to do. I don't know if I need to save myself or if someone is coming to get me. I'm hesitant to try and escape because I don't know if that will mess up some plan that I don't know about and I don't want to get anyone else killed, but I also just want to rabbit out of this situation. I'm not going down this way. Sterling says that we're meeting Sophie on the roof so I assume that there will be some kind of rescue attempt there. I just have to trust them to save me.

I'm so happy when I see Sophie on the roof even though I still don't know what's going on. I trust Sophie to save us. She wouldn't give me up. What I didn't expect was how she would do it. I can't believe she decided to think about how I would save myself, but she was right. It was the least expected thing for her to do and I'm so happy to run to her. It's the best feeling I have ever had running into Sophie's embrace and leaping off a building...total trust leaping without a harness, just holding onto Sophie and I felt loved that Sophie would believe she could just with my equipment and not get us killed.

It doesn't take me long to realize that this might be the end though. I had one of the most amazing feelings ever and know we have to split up. It's hard, but I get that we have to do it for now.


	13. 2nd David

I can't say I'm shocked to find the whole team casing the museum. I am a little surprised that Hardison has a base of operations for us. 3 months is a long time to be separated. The house is pretty awesome though the missing toilets could be a problem. It's scary how well Nate knows us all. It seems like I'm the only one willing to forgive and forget here. Which is bizarre since I'm the least people friendly person on the team, but then I get Sophie's need to steal the David, I'm a real thief like Sophie, in a way that everyone else isn't. We steal things because we want them not because someone else tells us to or because it is some kind of challenging way to prove how great we are. I don't know what the fuck Hardison is talking about when he says he doesn't need us. He probably needs us more than anyone else to do the physical stuff he doesn't want to do. I can't believe he would say that he didn't need us. I am happy when everyone else basically says that they want to work together. It's our choice now. We decided to do this together.

When Eliot brings up the basement, I can't help but taunt Hardison by telling him it was fun and then pretending to be completely oblivious to what he wants to talk about. To be fair the kissing was fun at the end when he stopped trying to talk about it. I want to use Maggie and like always only Hardison understands what I'm talking about initially. I think Maggie will do it. She needs revenge too even if she doesn't know it yet. Revenge makes people feel better.

I cannot believe that Nate makes Eliot wear a button camera. We did not need to watch them. Then, she says all these bad things about Nate. It's funny and then I realized that she totally knew we were watching her. Totally busted.

Maggie doesn't believe that we can do this. It's adorable and she smells really great. She's sweet and I sort of just want to protect her from all this stuff. It's a weird feeling, but I think she should get to stay honest. I like that she's honest.

Sophie sucks at apologies. We have to kind of help her through it, but she does it and now we can forgive her because that's what families do, forgive each other and I'm so happy that we're not permanently broken. I was afraid that maybe we couldn't work through this. We never had to work through this kind of thing before.

Then we get to do it, together we steal an entire museum's room worth of artwork. It's the most art I ever stole at one time. Of course, Nate makes us give it all back in the end. We can't risk it coming back on Maggie somehow.

We agree we have to split up again until the heat dies down. It's one of the hardest things I've ever done, but it's okay because I know that we're family, that we'll get back together again in the end. I'm surprised when Hardison asks where I'm going. Part of splitting up is not knowing where anyone else is for safety, but I say the first thing that pops into my head, that he can look for me and immediately I know that this will be the hardest chase I've ever had to evade because I'm not ready for him to find me and I know he won't hesitate to use all his prowess to try and locate me. This is going to be fun.


	14. Beantown Bailout

When I get the invitation to go to Sophie's play, I'm so excited. I've missed everyone and it's the first time anyone ever took the time to locate me and invite me to something non-job related. I suspect that if Sophie invited me, she has invited everyone else and I really hope they all show up. Life just hasn't been the same since our last job six months ago. I've been so bored. I can't really help people by myself very well and I have enough money to pretty much do anything I ever wanted, but what I really want is to just see my friends. I trust Sophie to make that happen.

Everyone acts surprised to see everyone else, but I know we all knew Sophie would invite everyone to come together. It's her style. As usual, Sophie's acting leaves something to be desired, but I find it very entertaining. I want to say something to make her feel better about the reviews, but don't really know what that would be. I mean she has to know by this point that she really is a terrible actress on stage even though we all know that offstage she is amazing. I offer the one thing that always makes me feel better, theft. Stealing something together would be a blast. It doesn't even have to be a job, but Nate says no. Then again, he also says no to working together as a team again, so technically he doesn't really get a say in what we do, I think smirking a little to myself, which new Nate oddly doesn't notice.

Hardison and I decide to dress up as missionaries to break into the safety deposit box. I was surprised when he agree to it because it wasn't really a necessary thing to do, but I wanted to wear the habit I had picked up on my travels and dressing up is fun. Plus, a habit leaves a lot of room to hide things and people don't look very closely at you. It's a good disguise.

This is the first time I've been alone with Hardison since we all came back. I'm not surprised when he tries to talk about looking for me, but even after 6 months apart, I'm not ready to jump into anything with him. If anything, I'm more hesitant because he couldn't find me and I was fine with that for the most part. I mean, I thought about him and I figured we would see each other again, but I never came to any conclusions about anything. Then again, this isn't a topic I have much experience with so I just didn't think about it very hard. I did know that he looked for me the entire time before he told me because he came pretty close a few times. Even so, I got that fluttery feeling in my stomach like I always did when he said something nice to me. I had just managed to avoid him because I wasn't ready to deal with what happened if he caught me. I'm still not. So, I tell him what comes to mind. I need time to figure things out. If something is supposed to be, it will be. There is no reason to rush into anything and even if we did, he would really need patience to deal with my figuring things out. I didn't exactly say it in those words, but I'm sure Hardison knew what I meant. He always did before. I have no reason to think that has changed. It's one of the things I like about him. That and he let me take all the money we could find in the safety deposit boxes.

This is the best con ever. Hardison and I got to dress up again, this time as law enforcement. It was fun to play off each other again. Stupid man didn't get my air quotes that Hardison taught me. I knew I was doing it right. I worked on that one because I liked it. I don't like everything the team tries to teach me about what other people do, but air quotes were cool and it seemed like the right time to use them, but the man ruined it by not getting what I was doing. At least Hardison liked it. Then we got to mess with Eliot telling him his 'pants' might explode. It was pretty funny.

When the girl hugs Nate, I know everything is going to be ok. He can't resist helping people and he just got the best confirmation that he helped someone. So, I go with Eliot and Hardison to do a little remodeling on our new office. I can't wait for the next case.


	15. Tap Out Job

A/N: We've seen Parker fight before this. It did seem like something she's worked on a bit.

When we have free time, Eliot gives me fighting lessons. He says I'm most likely to get caught somewhere on my own where he can't get to me quickly and I'm strong enough and athletic enough to be decent at it. I go along with it because I've done it before and know it's important.. Archie made me take classes to defend myself for similar reasons. I was a young woman on my own in a world full of criminals. Not the safest place to be. I was decent at. I could defend myself against 1 or 2 people at a time because it was unexpected and I was both quick and agile, but nothing like what Eliot does. Also, it's an opportunity to spend time with Eliot where we are both comfortable and he doesn't call me crazy or at least thinks that the craziness is useful.

It turned out that I was pretty good at the styles Eliot taught me. It was fun and better than just running and climbing for exercise. I'd always worked at staying in good shape before because I needed to fit places, be limber and quick. Fighting is a more interesting way to get the same benefits while learning a new skill. I'm kind of surprised when Eliot wants me to demonstrate on Hardison, but rapidly become slightly irritated when Hardison seems to think my taking him on is a big joke. Fighting isn't a joke. It's a necessity in our line of work. You either defend yourself or get killed in certain situations. I guess it's harder for Hardison to understand because until a year ago, he had never really done anything that wasn't behind the safety of a computer. Still, I'm annoyed enough to actually punch him pretty hard in the face. He deserved it for acting like wouldn't be able to hit him, I think grinning to myself.

I'm surprised by how simple it is to take Hardison down. I think he needs to be taking lessons with me. I mean he probably has over 100lbs on me. That alone should have made it a little more difficult to throw him. It takes Hardison like 2 seconds to tap out, but I don't let him go because it's funny. I know I"m not really hurting him because I've practiced this a few times with Eliot and even though Hardison is complaining, he's smiling at me. It is funny. He makes enough funny comments about dying that I eventually give into my giggling and break into full fledged laughter at which point I can't keep him down anymore. He rolls onto his back panting. When I finish laughing, I roll over giving him a quick hug. "Thanks, Hardison" I say grinning, "That was pretty funny." Then I wonder out of the room before he has a chance to respond.

Hanging out in the Midwest is fun. I forgot how much I liked life in the middle of nowhere. There isn't really anything to steal here of any fun, but I get to eat food that I like and just wander around without any real worry of someone recognizing me or meeting someone evil. I didn't have the best life growing up, but I did like the country. People are friendly and they don't think I'm crazy just eccentric. Also, it is surprisingly easy to buy guns...oh and a saxophone.

Then, I have to watch Eliot get beat up and that's pretty hard. Even though I know it's part of the con and getting hit is what Eliot does, I feel bad that we've taken a job where he absolutely has to get it's just a possibility that we might run into danger. This guy is evil. He deserves what we're doing to him. I'm glad when Eliot finally knocks this guy out and the fight is over. It's not very difficult to pretend to be upset that the guy is 'dead' because I am upset, but it's because Eliot took a pretty good beating before he flipped the fight, not about the guy that I know we drugged. It's the first time I've ever had to watch Eliot just get hit like that even though I know its his job. He looks fine after that doctor checks him out though so I guess he didn't let himself get hurt too bad and I feel pretty good about the set up we did. Dropping all those guns into his trunk and explaining it to our clients was fun and Hardison leaned up against me the whole time we were getting him caught which felt nice. I was confused though as we were leaving the gym and Sophie offered me a pork rind. Those are disgusting and I couldn't believe she was eating them.


	16. Order 23

Sometimes- ok, a lot of times in the beginning- I don't really understand the con that we are doing when it doesn't involve theft of physical items. So, I really appreciate that Nate takes the time to explain this con to me. It takes a little effort on his part and I know that I am annoying him with my constant stream of questions which are sometimes irrelevant - also, who knew that a baby doctor was called an obstetrician? - but he answers them all even when I know he wishes I would stop asking them. I mean obviously I know that Nate is never going to operate on me because he isn't a real doctor, but it's easier for me to play in the con if I just pretend that the entire thing is real. It's hard for me to stay in any kind of character at all if I'm constantly reminding myself that it is in fact just a character. After a pretty steady barrage of questions, I finally grasp that what we are doing is filling this guys head full of fear and that's something I can understand. Fear can be terrifying and make it impossible for you to do anything. It's a hard thing to break once its vice grip gets a hold of you. I can totally see how this guy will be willing to give us his money to be free of his fear if we do this the right way.

When the guy's nose starts bleeding I am creeped out in the most awesome way. Nate is amazing and I do kind of agree with Sophie that it makes him more attractive. I wish I could do some of the things Nate does.

When the guy offers me $400,000 I don't hesitate to help him escape. I mean it's part of the con, but there is a good chance I would risk disease for that kind of cash in the first place, I think with a smirk. Still, it feels pretty good to punch him in the face twice and take the bag from him especially since he would have tasered me for real if he could have. How dumb does he have to be to think that the cops wouldn't think that he had tried to escape.


	17. Fairy Godparents

I'm eager to go to the client meeting with Nate when Sophie doesn't show up. Learning about various cons and how they work as been intriguing. I would like to see how the actual meeting goes, but it's normally Sophie's job since she's actually good with people. I try to be considerate as Sophie has showed me and get the woman a glass of water when she sits down. I even remember to hold her hand while offering her my sympathy, but Nate looks at me oddly so I know I must not be doing something right. Sophie and I are going to have to work on this some more, but overall, I think my first client meeting went pretty well.

I'm disappointed when Nae tries to explain to me what I did wrong. I know he's trying to help me, to make me a better asset to the team, but he isn't very good at explaining these types of things and it just makes me more confused. I guess I will have to talk to Sophie about what went wrong later.

Sophie gives me that 'are you serious look?' when I ask if she was with the boyfriend. I don't understand how I'm supposed to know when I'm not supposed to say something. I know that's where she was. Why is it a secret? Sometimes these people are so strange. At times, I think that I'm actually the normal one. Why would you need to keep these things hidden? People should just be more honest about stuff. It would make life so much easier. I realize that Eliot has said something burning things down and immediately raise my hand volunteering for that job. I'm not surprised when I'm the first one to volunteer. No one else ever wants to do anything exciting.

Hardison and I dress up in these ridiculous outfits and pretend to be married so that we can move in next to the target. When we look around the apartment I check out the vent ducts. They are pretty small, but I think I could slide through them. Hardison looks at me kind of funny, but i would never move in somewhere I couldn't use the ducts as an escape route. As soon we get the lease signed, we go out in the hallway to put up a motion sensor so we can get a better idea what's happening. Since neither of us thought to bring chairs or a ladder, Hardison kneels down to be my step stool, which I find moderately amusing. Right when I get the detector attached the FBI agents we met before show up in the hallway and we have to quickly hide. They never would have seen us if the hit man hadn't shown up at the same time. Luckily, they remembered us and didn't question why I had a gun pointed at them. Thinking quickly, I give Hardison the gun saying that he dropped it. While Hardison is flailing around trying to explain what we are doing there, I give the most obvious explanation - that we are there to back them up. For good measure, I run my hand down McSweeten's chest/tie remember that Sophie says it will cause him to temporarily forget his train of thought and we escape back into our apartment.

When we meet back up with the rest of team, I quickly draw a picture of the gunman while Nate drowns on about how we are messing up this con as if it's our fault that the FBI agents had met us before. I think we can use that to our advantage, but Nate doesn't shut up long enough for me to say anything about getting access to their information. I finish up the drawing and hand it to Eliot so he will know who to be looking for. Everyone seems oddly surprised that I have drawn a picture of this guy. I didn't know that drawing people was a special skill. I really did think that everyone could do that. I guess I never gave too much thought to it since I haven't needed to do it very often. I mainly worked alone so there was no reason to draw pictures for other people before. Of course Nate continues his conversation telling us what I had already figured out, that we could use our relationship with the FBI for information.

McSweeten and Taggert take us into the mark's apartment which gives me a chance to use the new gadget Hardison has made. I will admit that a little pocket metal detector is pretty useful. It doesn't take me very long to locate the box using it. Unfortunately, that same assistance doesn't take very long to get in our way. As I'm explaining to Hardison exactly how I will break into the apartment, they show up early interrupting our conversation. Then I have to make annoying small talk with McSweeten and pretend like I'm interested in him. At least it's not very difficult . McSweeten is actually sweet. It's not very difficult to like him and I don't feel the least bit creeped out by him like I need to worry that he is going to say or do something to freak me out or hurt I drink out of his coffee cup and he calls it a coffee kiss, I smile at him. I didn't really think about it when I did it, but it is cute when he says that. I think he might seriously like me which is hard to believe considering he is a real FBI agent and I'm like the most wanted thief in the world. I'm kind of glad he doesn't know who I really am right up to the point where it interferes with my getting to do the break in.

Hardison is going to totally screw this up. I didn't get to explain the entire thing to him and he is terrible at rappelling. I can't even talk freely to him and McSweeten puts his hand on my back guiding me to the elevator as if I couldn't get there on my own. Next thing I know, I'm standing outside trying to get Hardison through the break in when McSweeten comes out with a smoothie for me. Who does that? I didn't ask for it and why is he following me around? I will admit that it is nice of him to think of me. It's really hard to think of appropriate comments to make that give Hardison the information he needs. I hope that he is really understanding what I'm saying. I don't want him to get injured or caught. McSweeten is going on about love at first sight which is ridiculous, how can you love something immediately? At least it gives me the opportunity to tell Hardison what he needs to know even though I don't think most of what I just said meant anything to McSweeten. I do remember to smile at him which appears to have the desired effect. In fact, I'm certain that McSweeten likes me. It makes me feel good that a normal guy would like me. Especially after Hardison annoys me by going on about how he can do my job as if he just broke into that place by himself. I swear one day I'm going to stab him a little for being so arrogant about stuff. When we nab the accomplice, McSweeten calls me a lady. I smile at him because he is just so sweet. I can't think of anyone else ever mistaking for a lady.

A/N: I would totally ship McSweeten/Parker if there was no Hardison. He is really sweet. Also review/comments are always appreciated


	18. Hunter

Sophie has lost her mind. She can't be Nate and I can't be her. That's not how life works. You can't just be someone else. Plus I'm terrible at grifting. I hate it. I never know what I'm supposed to be doing. It's pretty much the only time I'm every worried about anything. I'm pretty much fearless except for when I'm trying to figure out how not to blow my cover story or freak out and hurt someone before they hurt me. I don't even hear half of what Sophie is saying, but I hear enough to know that she is doing a poor Nate impression.

Sophie makes me pretend to steal something, which I hate. Why don't people understand that what I do is a part of me? I steal things because I have to like breathing. I don't mess it up because how would you mess up something like breathing? Stealing isn't work for me, but actually getting caught is and then Sophie makes me tell this Hunter about my fake story and spend even more time with this lady who says she sells fear. Nate showed me what fear can do to someone and no one should be selling it. It's evil!

Even I'm creeped out when we go to the apartment Hardison has created. He looks like some insane guy from one of those horror movies Hardison makes me watch. I put my arm around Hunter and she agrees to meet me in the morning to go see the general so I assume that I've done this part right so far. Hardison gives me a high five when she leaves because we convinced her - at least I think that's why we high five. While Sophie and Nate do their little bantering I look around at the conspiracies Hardison has posted. I don't know if any of this stuff is real. It has nothing to do with anything I've ever needed to know so I ask Eliot if any of this stuff is real, but he won't answer me and Nate just sort of waves me away. It's kind of annoying when people won't tell me things I don't know.

After Hunter blows us off, Sophie makes me pretend to get hit by a car in order to hook her again. Even though we practice it, it's not my favorite thing. No matter how you do it, it still hurts. I mean it's just a little bruise and some acting, but not something I want to do very often.

I ask Eliot some more questions while we are waiting, but I can't tell if he is being truthful or not. I hope he's not because everything he says blows my mind. Obviously we landed on the moon. Why would the country make that up? Nate comes in and brings me peppermints which is awesome, they are perfect to use as a fake pill.

After the job's done, I ask Hardison and Eliot some more questions while Eliot cooks our dinner. I love watching him cook. I never got to watch anyone cook before the team came together. It's a family thing. I still don't know if their answers are real or not, but they sound real and totally ruin things that I thought I knew. I'm going to do that internet search thing Hardison showed me when I get back to my place. I have internet because Hardison has forced it on all of us.


	19. Magician

I'm sitting out on the bench outside the office complex figuring out how to break in when the nasty guy on the bench next to me tries to touch my hair breaking my concentration and just generally freaking me out which is why I don't realize at first that he's actually security. By the time I figure it out, it's too late, but like always, I had an escape route planned before I sat down. My comeback remark was shitty, I need to really work on those some more, but I'm able to quickly kick him off me and somersault off the bridge. I mean I have to hang there for quite a while, but I can do that for a pretty long time. By the time I get off the bridge and back to the office, my arms are kind of sore and Eliot is standing around icing his bruises. I kind of want to ice my arms down, but I don't want everyone to know that I'm sore from hanging off the bridge so instead I poke Eliot repeatedly in the arm for my own entertainment and distraction.

I'm surprised that Sophie doesn't know Erik is an evil name, but I don't miss Nate's weird look at me. I don't know why he is looking at me like that. Also, that guy Hardison shows a picture of is not attractive. Why would anyone be interested in him?

These corporate gigs sound so boring. Why would anybody do that kind of thing? I'm so glad I don't have live in the real world. Hardison says their entertainment is some terrible musician and then volunteers us to go check him out. I go along with it even though I really don't like magic. The tricks are usually too easy to figure out to be entertaining.

I notice 2 things as soon as the magician goes on stage - first, he should button his shirt and second his assistant can't stand him. Hardison forces me to volunteer to go up on stage. I really don't want to do it, but it is kind of cute when Hardison keeps cheering me own. I tell him I love him back. I wonder if I'll ever say that to someone for real one day. I grab the sword when the guy shoves it in. The look on his face is totally worth it when Hardison gets the box open. Then he does the whole nose rubbing thing which he told me are called Eskimo kisses. I don't really get it, but it's cute Hardison gives me fake kisses. It gives me the little butterflies in my stomach again and then the guy punches Hardison in the stomach and it's a good thing I'm locked in a box because even though I know we were trying to get him locked up, I could totally take that idiot.

While we setting up for the magic show, Eliot and I tell stories about how we got over our fears as children only I don't know why everyone is staring me after I share my story. I'm supposed to tell people things about myself and this was something I felt comfortable sharing. I thought they would be happy to know how I got over my fear of the dark but instead Eliot just asks me for like the millionth time what was wrong with me. I make a mental note to ask Nate or Sophie why later.

The three of us take off to do the break in and Hardison steals a key without ever touching anything which is awesome. I mean I could have just take it from the guy, but this way carried less risk of exposing us. Hardison is briefly cool again before opening his mouth and walking into Eliot's jab, which was funny as always. Hardison and Eliot together are always good for a laugh. Then everything is totally ruined when the mark cuts his speech short and I have to get back to Nate because he is making me be his assistant for some unknown reason. I get to jump down the elevator shaft in order to get there which is almost worth playing this dumb role, but then I have to put on the stupid costume which ruins my high. I think that Nate isn't very good at this magic stuff. I just kind of stand around pretending to watch Nate and pointing stuff out, but it gets boring and half the time I forget what I"m supposed to be doing. Then Sophie comes out and I realize she's upset that I'm on stage and she's not. So I tell her she can jump down the elevator shaft next time. Then she can be on stage instead of me. I don't understand why she says everyone knows that I love doing that. Of course they do, I don't make it a secret.

When Nate makes the dove appear, that's pretty cool and then I get to smash a bird and that's pretty awesome. The audience laughs and applauds so I think I'm doing a good job even if some parts of this act are boring Nate needs to really learn some more exciting tricks. Most of them are pretty lame and I'm ready to get off the stage. I'm missing the entire break in and I can hear Hardison and Nate in trouble but I can't leave the stage yet. I'm glad when Sophie tells us to wrap it up. We need to get Hardison. I can hear them hurting him.

As soon as Hardison gets outside, I swipe the Casten's phone and hand it off to Nate. He wraps up the con and we head out. Oddly Nate holds out his arm to me and I take it. It wasn't so bad being his assistant.

Hardison tries to show me some card tricks which is nice of him, but it's too easy to just take the cards from him. He never notices what I've done because he is so wrapped up in doing the trick correctly. He really needs to learn how to pay more attention to what's going on around him. I think maybe he spends too much time wrapped up in his electronics and not enough time paying attention to the world around him. I think maybe I can help him with that.


	20. 2 Live Crew

This con is bad from the start. I don't know why no one will listen to me. I could have broken in and taken the painting. I am actually that good. We've been working together for quite a while now. My friends should know what I'm capable of. Instead, while we are working out some other, supposedly easier way to steal the painting, someone else gets it first. Proof that it was totally possible to do it my way.

And then things get worse, we find Sophie in her apartment holding a motion sensitive bomb. I do freak out for a second. Luckily Nate stops me from actually touching the vase and setting it off. We really need to save Sophie. My mind is racing pretty fast trying to come up with a solution when it hits on the pudding giving us a few extra seconds. I think it might work so I ask if there is any pudding. First everyone looks at me like I'm insane and then they come to the same realization that I do. I'm gradually realizing that there are some things I figure out more quickly than everyone else. I very carefully add the pudding mix to the water. As steady as if I was lifting a very sensitive priceless item from it's secure setting. Then, we get out leaving Sophie to come behind us.

Nate tells us we have to have a funeral for her. I don't want to do it. She looks dead in that coffin. It's freaking me out and I just don't like it. I don't want Sophie to be dead and I don't get why I have to call her Katherine. Hardison writes me this dumb speech I'm supposed to give at the funeral,but I forget what I'm supposed to be saying part way through when I look at Sophie's dead body. Why would this happen to her? Hardison grabs me and pulls me away from the 'body' snapping me out of my thoughts and reminding me that this isn't real.

It's so weird having Sophie sit in the room with us when she's supposed to be dead. In my head, I know she's not actually dead, but I'm still having a hard time dealing with seeing her in that coffin. Your friends should not be in coffins. It's just wrong. After I touch her, I feel better and I feel completely comfortable with her again once she yells at me. Then I'm surprised to hear that Sophie worked with other Nate's before us, but am immediately distracted from this fact by the Mona Lisa scam. It's one of the few cons that I actually know. And I'm practically gleeful when Sophie says we're going to steal a painting from a museum. I haven't done that in a while. Since before we became a team actually because paintings aren't really my thing.

I know this is going to be fun at the start,but it turns out to be even better when I realize that I have competition. There is nothing I like more than proving I'm better than another thief. He swipes the wallet and I take it back immediately, but it turns out that he has my phone. However, I'm not very attached to my phone and Hardison can get me another one. I am annoyed though that I let something of mine be taken. There is nothing worse for a thief than to get your stuff stolen by another thief.

Why does everyone look like that when I say Apollo is probably unstable? I'm not unstable. How long is it going to take everyone to figure that out? I mean I have accepted that they are sometimes a little slow on the uptake about things, but seriously it's been nearly 2 years. I have some issues, but none of them are related to my ability to steal things. I am the most stable when I'm taking something. It makes me feel whole and perfect. It's what I was put here for.

I feel only excitement that we are taking on another team in a race to get to this painting. Eliot goes with me as far as the air duct entry way, then it's all on me. Everything is going ok until I run into the other guy in the duct, then I have to improvise, but we prepare for these things. I come out on the wrong side of the room and the lasers go on. I'm barely able to avoid them. I take a deep breath, watching the lasers move. Lasers are definitely on my list of favorite things. I watch them for a few seconds catching the pattern and then I move. There are some things that I do that other people can do, but I know I'm the only one who can get through lasers like this. Archie told me he's never seen anyone as good at lasers as I am. He let me take dance and gymnastic lessons so I could get better. I have the gift for it. And even better I have a very small amount of Sophie's grifting skills. Able to pretend to be a cop long enough to convince other people and take the other thief into "custody".

We totally won and to top it off, I smashed Apollo in lock picking. We also got Chaos picked up by the police again. I did a little victory dance inside.


	21. Iceman

God, I miss Sophie so much. There is no one to explain things to me, no one to answer my questions or tell me I'm ok. The couch is so empty and I can't pay attention to the briefing. I just want Sophie to come back. I need her. I missed most of this briefing until I hear diamonds. I tune in, snatching the controller from Hardison and then when they don't seem to be taking me seriously - sometimes I think only Nate really gets what I'm capable of because he's the one who chased me and I'm the only one he never came close to - I list a few of my exploits. I know diamonds, they run a very close 2nd to cash money in my are pretty and easily converted into case money. Nothings better than that. I explain how to deal in diamonds. I get the feeling that none of them have ever stolen diamonds before and immediately my thoughts return to Sophie. She would get it. Even though art is her thing, she totally gets the value in a good piece of jewelry. I wonder if maybe this is a girl thing. I'm going to ask Sophie next time I see her. Maybe this is the thing I share with other women, a thing I didn't lose like shopping, clothes and shoes.

I try to get Nate to call Sophie as soon as he mentions the grifting that we will have to do, but of course he totally blows that off and I start mentally falling apart as soon as he says I'm going to be the roper. He's insane, the only things I've been able to pull off are with Sophie in my ear instructing me. I've hurt every guy that ever tried to lay a hand on me once I was big enough to do that. It's like an uncontrollable urge to protect myself. I can't stop it. Hell, I don't want to stop it. I know it's a con and the team needs me to play along, but I don't think I can. I cannot stop the racing thoughts in my head. How am I ever going to do this?

I call Sophie as soon as I can get away. Sophie will know what to do. Sophie starts talking about some random shoes. I don't know why they are important, but I will do exactly what Sophie told me to do. I ask her not to tell Nate that I called. He would not be happy with me. I don't think he understands how difficult it is for me to do these things. I don't want some guy looking at me or touching me. I just don't like it.

I find her dress and her shoes where she told me they were. I get them out and retrieve my diamond necklace. Sophie's right it is pretty difficult not to look at that diamond. I get dressed. Sophie isn't here to fix my hair so I just pull it back into a ponytail. It's the best I can do. When I walk into the room all the guys turn and stare at me for a full minute. I start to mentally freak out even more. I don't know why they are looking at me like that until I hear Hardison's muffled exclamation about how good I look. That snaps them out of it and Nate quickly ushers us out of the office and to the mark.

As I enter the bar I chant my new mantra over and over, "say nothing and trust the diamond". I can do this. Sophie believes in me and as a result I believe in me. Sure enough, Sophie is right. The guy looks at the diamond before he actually looks at me which is strange. Guys are always looking at me. People think I'm oblivious to these kind of things but I'm a thief it's my job to be observant of my surroundings and to know what's going on. Of course I notice that people look at me. I just choose to ignore it because I don't really understand why they are looking at me. The guy is totally enthralled by the diamond. I can work with that. Diamonds I know. I get him into the back room with Hardison.

Almost immediately Hardison starts laying it on too thick. He always goes just a little too far with his roles. While I have trouble getting into a role and staying there, Hardison seems to have trouble not getting overly immersed in his. When Hardison starts listing my achievements as his, I start getting angrier and angrier. I am going to kill him. As soon as this is over, I'm going to kill him. No one gets credit for my work not even my team. I have to turn away and pick up a glass, something to occupy my hands so I don't reach out and strangle him.

When we get back to the office, I grab my locks and start picking them. I have to calm down. If I kill Hardison, the team will be mad at me and I would probably miss him. There wouldn't be anyone to watch movies late at night with me when I can't sleep. I'm so angry I almost give away that I spoke to Sophie. I just barely recover and I feel my anger evaporating. When Eliot leaves the room, I glare at Hardison until he looks at me and says he's sorry for saying he pulled all my jobs, but he needed a cover story that would hold up and I know he's right. People don't know me. I don't have a file anywhere. I could be iceman for all anyone knows.

Hardison pulls off the diamond switch and I get a little diamond reward, but then it all goes wrong. I feel a little panicky when we find out Hardison's been taken. I was angry at him earlier, but I'm allowed to be angry at him. Other people aren't allowed to hurt him. We have to get him back. I know we'll get him back. I hand Nate the hairspray. I know he knows what to use it for. This vault is difficult, but I can do it. I can get into the vault ahead of Hardison and let him pretend to break in. I mean he's been taking credit for my work this entire time. We may as well let him finish it out. I rappel down the side of the building - no reason other than I wanted to, though I told Nate that I just had to look for potential escape routes.

Eliot clears the way and I break in. It was too difficult after I had thought about. I clear the sensor and crack the code. I write the code down for Hardison to read. He better get this part right. The rest is pretty simple since I'm going to turn everything off for him so he can just waltz right in. I'm so irritated by their arguing I have to tell them to shut up so I can actually get my work done. Apparently no one gets what I actually do or how sensitive it is. I swing in the door and make a perfect leap onto the piping in the vault. I crawl across the pipe, hanging upside down to disable the sensors and feel myself start to grin. God I love my job so much. This is so much fun. I can hear Eliot trying to slow Hardison down. He's going too fast. This isn't going to work out, but we have of course another plan in place. Nate would never have just one plan. I nearly finish before Hardison gets inside, but I can't crack all of the boxes in the time I have. I don't know which one it is and there are just too many. So we move to plan B or whatever Nate is calling it. I hop in the large box we have set up and wait for Hardison to set off the alarms. I can hear when Nate brings the mark into the vault and wait patiently for Hardison to get to me. I can't stop grinning even with the danger. Nothing feels as good as getting into a secure vault and taking things.

Then I yank Hardison into the box with me and almost immediately I stop thinking about the break in I just accomplished. Hardison is so close to me. The only time he's ever been this close to me before was when we kissed for the con last year. I thought I was over that, but as soon as feel his body heat right up against me I start thinking about what it was like to kiss Hardison. I want to kiss him again. I hear Hardison ask me how we're getting out and then what is on the floor and I remember that the floor is about to fall out from under us. I take a breath and swallow hard. I tell him to pull his arms in. I put my hand on his shoulder pulling him just a little closer into safety. I don't want him to hit the any part of the floor as we fall down. He's not very good at 's so close our foreheads are touching and I can feel his nose against mine. I have to tell myself to breathe and then the floor crashes in and I snap out of it.

This is bad, I mean really bad. I can't go around thinking about kissing Hardison. I don't know why I am thinking about that, but I definitely don't want to be thinking about it. We have to work together. I won't mess this up. I can't mess this up. I need the team especially if Sophie doesn't come back and I'm really worried that she won't come back. I think she might be broken like me, but in a different way. I wish I could help her.


	22. Lost Heir

When Hardison tells us that Nate went to see Sophie, I feel something I haven't felt in a long time. I feel hopeful. Hopeful that Nate can fix Sophie and bring her back.

Nate's not very good at lying to us. I think it's because he's still an honest man and honest men do not lie to their friends. Playing where's Waldo is fun right up to the point that Nate says she's not coming back. I can't understand that. Sophie is my friend. Friend's don't just go away forever. If they do, then they weren't really your friend and Sophie swears she's my friend. "Not now?" I hear myself ask Nate, "Or ever?" Nate doesn't know, but I have faith. She'll come back. She loves us. The only real question is how long will it take. I hope it's not too long. I might have to go to London. Sophie would probably like that. A visit from a friend.

Sometimes I just don't know what Nate is thinking. I'm in the next room having a perfectly good time cracking the safe and next thing I know I'm in the room with Nate pretending to be a meth addict. I can't just pretend to be someone else. I'm not Sophie. I need time to plan what I'm going to do. I'm the worst meth addict ever plus everyone knows I don't do drugs.

This is definitely the worst plan Nate has every had. We are meeting some guy in a place where we can't hide, with no good escape routes. Sure enough we nearly get shot. I'm pretty sure we would be dead if it wasn't for Eliot. I have to remember to thank him later, but right now I have to run to get to the hearing. It's a good thing Eliot and I keep up with our training. Running places isn't really my favorite activity and the next thing I know we're running from the cops because that lawyer had an APB put out on me. Unfortunately, Eliot seems to have some issue with hitting a cop. Luckily, I'm there and I have no such problems. I'm not going to jail and I got to stun the second cop. It was pretty funny seeing him writhing on the floor. I decided to hold onto that taser.

When we walk into the office and see Tara sitting there, I'm concerned because Sophie sending a replacement means that maybe she really isn't coming back - and that's something I can't deal with. Then she calls me adorable and I think I might have to kill her, though I do feel a little glimmer of happiness that Sophie told her I was adorable. It's fine with me if Sophie thinks I'm adorable and not crazy. I'll work with her because Sophie wants us to, but if she calls me adorable one more time I will hurt her.


	23. Runway

Sophie is right. We need a grifter. None of us are good at that part. When Hardison and Eliot tell Sophie that Tara is hot, I agree with them. It seemed like the right thing to do until everyone started staring at me. Then I realized that they thought I was checking her out and tried to backtrack, but I don't know what the big deal really was. I mean Tara is hot, anyone would notice that. When Nate comes in, I'm sad because we have to hang up and I find myself telling Sophie that I miss her. I haven't missed anyone in a long time.

I take some pictures of Tara for the magazine. I don't really know why I have to take the pictures, but I do it just like when Sophie took pictures of me before. Then at least I get to have a little fun breaking in and depositing the magazine.

I don't get this whole fashion week thing, but I think Sophie would really like it. I wish she was here. Tara told me I just had to play a little bitchy to get that girl at the desk to do what I wanted her to do and that's something I can definitely do. I mean yelling at people is easy.

I have an awful feeling about this job. Somehow I'm going to end up in one of those hideous dress. Why do people wear that crap? It's ugly and you can't move in it or hide things in it.

Nate and I nearly get blown up when we show up at the Pan's house. I listen as Nate and Hardison argue about getting a photo of the car. I perk up a little when Nate asks Hardison a math question. I like math. It's numbers and I use numbers for everything, safes, pin pads, distance, time to get in and out. It's probably in my top 10 favorite things, but pretty far down the list. Like behind cereal. When I give Nate the answer he doesn't even seem to care. Probably he knew the answer too. Hardison really needs to step up his game. He could have used the calculator on his computer.

It's just like I thought. I have to retrieve information and I end up in a stupid dress. What's worse is that somehow I end up getting my face and hair done. I will admit that I looked pretty good when I saw the mirror. My life just goes from bad to worse when I get shoved on the stage after I had to listen to Eliot go on about naked models. Sometimes I wonder if Eliot forgets that I'm a girl. I am not one of the guys and I do not want to hear about his conquests. As I'm walking down the stage, I realize that we are in serious trouble. We need to get that data out of here so I decide to fall of the stage. It will cause a distraction for Eliot to grab the designs since I couldn't do it.

After I get off the stage, I have to change out of the stupid dress to get out of the fashion show, so I take that shirt I wanted to wear in the first place. Eliot just rolls his eyes at me and we head out to give Hardison the thumb drive. Surprisingly, Tara pulls off the cop scam pretty handily. I'm impressed that she did it without an ear piece.


	24. Bottle Job

Nate takes us to an Irish wake at the bar where he lives at. It's interesting. I've never been to a wake before. I thought people would be sadder, but it seemed more like they were celebrating the man's life. Especially after Nate explained a few things including the poker game that was going on in the back room. I bet that Nate was a cute little boy, but his father sounds like a piece of work - bet that's why Nate is so creepy all the time.

I'm surprised that no one else understands why Nate would move into an apartment over the bar where he grew up at. You just can't give up everything you love. That's why Bunny goes everywhere with me. Nate gave up or at least tried to give up drinking and thieving. He couldn't give up watching over people. It was just too hard for him.

After Cora told us her problem, I thought we could just call the police. That's what the police do, help innocent people. I didn't really get what would happen afterwards, but Nate is probably right about how things would go down and doing the Wire in 2 hours will be fun.

When Nate tells us how things will be if we don't stop this guy now, Eliot and I know we have to do it even though we also know that it's drunk Nate telling us what to do. Still, I've kind of missed the excitement of working out on the ledge with Nate. Nothing is as much fun as the cons Nate has us do when he is drunk. He's a lot more exhilarating when he's drunk almost like going for a jump. Plus, taking Doyle's money with Doyle's money is just plain funny. I especially like the look on Eliot and Nate's face when I ask them "What if I can't crack the safe?" as if there is any safe in the world that I can't crack. It was just too funny.

Hardison tells us where the warehouse is in rapid fashion, but we still give him a hard time about it. It's just what we do. Unfortunately, the place is fairly large it will take us more time to actually locate the safe. When we finally do find it, I'm in love. It's a Glen-Reeder Prestige, my favorite safe. Still, it's like no one understands what it is I do. How am I supposed to hear the clicks with everyone talking and stomping around. I need quiet to work. It's the one thing I really don't like about having a team now. There is no peace and quiet. It's even hard to get alone time because people are always wondering where I'm at or if something is wrong with me. I can't just want to be alone, but I'm sort of getting used to it - except when I'm trying to crack a safe.

I try humming to myself to drown out the noise, but it doesn't really help when the fight moves to right behind me. God, these people are so annoying. Finally, I kick the guy in the head shutting him up. Eliot seems kind of offending, but seriously his job was interfering with my job and we did not have time for that. I needed to get the cash. We didn't exactly have much time here. Finally, I get a moment of silence and grab all the cash. At least they had good taste in security.

Then comes the worst part of every job, Nate makes me help give all that cash back. That part definitely deserved a drink and then Hardison tried to make me help him clean up the apartment. That's not really something that I do, but I did at least go upstairs and keep him entertained while he put everything back where it belonged. Plus, I had to fix my cereal boxes.


	25. Zanzibar

Hardison and I are sitting at the bar together and he's going on about some ridiculous thing, being tourists in Tokyo for some reason. I don't know why we would ever do that. There are so many more fun things that we could be doing in our time off. I'm trying to figure out why we are discussing this when Sterling walks in and brightens up my day with a little Eliot fight. I glance back to see Hardison hand some cash to the bar keeper and I know I can enjoy this little spectacle. I cannot believe that Sterling would just walk in here. How stupid is he?

Poor Maggie, she shouldn't be in a jail. Honest people don't go to jail. She wouldn't know what to do there. We definitely have to get her out. I hope she's okay until we get to did this to her deserves whatever Nate comes up with.

Listening to Nate and Sterling talk about this robbery is kind of painful. They clearly have no idea what happened. Why can't other people figure these kind of things out? It's clearly an inside job. Eventually, I decide to make them aware that I'm in the room and tell them what really happened.

When Maggie walks in, I know Nate is in trouble. She has that angry look in her eyes like when Nate says something stupid to Sophie. While Maggie yells at Nate and Sterling, I grab the bag I made for her and start showing it to her, but eventually realize that we should just do that somewhere else.

After I finished explaining the contents of the bag to Maggie, I had some free time so I decided to try out the touristy thing that Hardison said I should do. I will admit that it was pretty fun. That security system was so old, it was pretty much an antique. It was cool to see something like that. When I met up with Hardison to pretend to be his bride, I told him what I had done, but he just seemed confused that I didn't look at the artwork. If I had gone there to look at art, I would have just taken something. It would have been so easy. Then, Nate would have gotten mad at me because we are in the middle of a job. I can't just go around grabbing stuff from museums when we are supposed to be working.

I grab onto Hardison's arm, pretending that we are a real couple looking to get married. Secretly, I can't believe that people actually do this. I mean Hardison says people just meet online and then get married so that they can get into the US, but that seems really strange to me. Of course, I don't really understand why people get married in the first place so I guess doing it to get into America isn't really that strange. It's kind of like some weird con. While he fumbles around getting pictures with his button cam, I grab the mark's phone and clone it. Turns out that he's planning to fence to item through a guy I recognize so that gets us a little closer to solving this thing.

Once we figure out that the egg is in the building, I go to retrieve it, but the stupid guard is standing right in front of the door. Of course Sterling comes along to distract the guy. I can't believe he was going to pee in the hallway. Who does that? Then, he comes around the corner trying to act like we couldn't have done this without him. Luckily, Hardison is able to make him shut up. It's funny actually. I didn't know that Hardison could make the earbuds have feedback on command.

Eliot and Hardison come up with this plan to save Nate and Maggie where I get to ride on top of the elevator. That sounds fun to me, plus I get to basically save them from a bomb. I'm surprised when I drop into the elevator and Maggie and Nate are kissing. It's weird. They are divorced and I thought that Nate and Sophie liked each other. I wonder if this is the kind of thing I'm supposed to tell Sophie about. I mean, I think that girls tell each other things like this, but I've never done that kind of thing before. I'll try to remember it next time I talk to her.


	26. Future job

When we take our seats for Rand's show, I start freaking out a little because what if this guy really is psychic? We don't know for sure that he's scamming people even though Nate is pretty certain and he's usually not wrong about these things. If he is wrong, this guy might know things about me that I don't want known or don't want to think about.

I realize I'm more tense than I thought when Nate questions me. I just tell him I don't like psychics and try to stop worrying about it. There is no reason for this guy to look at me or talk to me. It's not like I would call attention to myself. That's not wat I do, of course, I didn't know that Nate would do it for me.

When Rand focuses in on me, I start to panic immediately. He knows someone in my family is dead and I don't know how he could know that, but I don't want to hear from my brother. It's my fault he died. I taught him to ride that bike and I was responsible for him. He wouldn't even have been riding the bike if I hadn't stolen it from him. He shouldn't have been on the street on that bicycle. We were supposed to stay inside until I finished my homework, but I never listened. I always finished it before they came home from work so they didn't know the difference. The neighbor that kept an eye on us after school didn't care when I did it.

Rand brings up my brother and the accident and I feel like something just slammed into my chest. I can barely focus on what he's saying. I don't want to cry here in front of all these people. Heck, I never want to cry. It's just not something I do. All I can see now is his dead face. The car didn't even stop. Our foster parents weren't home. I didn't know what to do. I was just a little girl and he was the only person I had in the whole world. The only thing I loved. He was my family. I can barely hear what Rand is saying now. My thoughts are racing a mile a minute and my chest hurts. I can barely breathe and when I hear him saying that it's not my fault, that he doesn't blame me, I just run. It's my fault the only real family I had died. How could it not be? How could he possibly forgive me? Everything is all my fault.

My first instinct was to just leave, to get away and go somewhere where no one would ever bring him up again, but if find myself standing in front of our building for some reason. I go inside and there is no one there and I can't stop crying. I miss him so much. How did Rand know? Did he really hear from him? I needed my brother. I needed someone to be with me through all the terrible things that happened. Maybe things would have ended up different. Our foster parents hadn't been so bad, better than our parents, but after he died, I shut down and they couldn't handle it. My mistake changed my whole life.

I'm so angry with Rand for making me think about these things. The anger takes over the sadness and luckily I'm not crying anymore when the team comes in. I know they can tell I've been crying, but I feel better that I'm not actually crying in front of them. I don't remember the last time I cried in front of people. I don't know how Nate could have been so wrong about him. I feel uncomfortable when I see the concern on their faces. I know they are worried about me. Only Hardison has ever seen me close to crying before and I'm a mess right now. I don't want to answer their questions and I'm surprised when no one asks me or even seems curious about my brother. Sometimes, my team is really great, but also, I know that Tara just isn't Sophie and I wonder idly if she will tell Sophie and if Sophie will bother me about this on out next call or when she comes back.

At first I don't believe the team when they say I told him about my brother because I never said anything, but they show me how he read me and I think how unlike me that is. I'm usually hard to understand. This guy is good. He got me to show things I normally don't give away. He made me feel the worst thing that ever happened to me again. He deserves to die. I hear myself asking to kill him and I mean it. I would do it, but for some reason I'm looking at Nate and waiting for his permission. Why do I need his permission? I smile slightly when Eliot says he could do it. I know he would do it for he. He wouldn't hesitate if Nate said it was the right thing to do, but we don't kill people even really evil people. It's just not what we do.

Nate tells us what we will do and it's better than killing him, because death is final, but this will hurt him for a long time and he will never con anyone again. I know Hardison will keep an eye on him just to make sure, but if he does, then I will kill him. I'm sure of it. He only gets one chance.

When we realize that Rand has been kidnapped, I'm okay with that. I don't really care about rescuing him because if he got killed that would be ok with me. When we decide to send Tara after him, I know we are going to finish the job as planned, but my mood brightens considerably when I hear about the money. Treasure hunts are fun. Plus Eliot says I can put up the explosives.

Hardison tells me he is going to try and find the real location of the money and then I can go and get it. I know that he is trying to do something for me. I know he is worried because I was so upset, but doesn't want to question me about it since I clearly don't want to talk about it and I appreciate it. He really is sweet sometimes. He must be for me to be noticing it.

When Rand is finally arrested and we watch him get take off, I feel really good about it. We did this together. We ruined him and saved all those people he would have conned. We did a good job. Hardison tells me a funny fortune, it must have been Rand's real fortune that we replaced. It was fitting.

After we get back, Nate calls to set up a meeting with the client and Hardison slips me a piece of paper with an address on it. I slip out of our offices and retrieve the missing money. It's a decent amount and I ask Hardison if we can give it to our client which he of course agrees to. As the man is leaving, I hand him the envelope of cash and am surprised when he hugs me. After a moment, I hug him back. He is a good brother, watching out for his sister like this. I wonder if my brother would have been like that if I had looked out for him better.

Eliot realizes that Hardison and I found the money without him and seems upset. I don't really know if it's because he missed out on the fun or because he thought we might have done something dangerous, but I don't really care. Hardison and I did it together and I tell him the fortune that pops into my head before giving him a high five. Maybe I do have other family, they are just a different kind of family.

A/N: I kind of think that Parker's parents are alive or at least she doesn't know whether they are or not just based on the fact that Rand doesn't get a hit when he brings up her father.


	27. 3 strikes

When Nate puts up Bonano's picture, I'm confused. The police should get justice for him. I mean they are pretty good at taking care of their own and he isn't really a friend, just someone we use occasionally. Plus, none of us want to get this close to the cops. It's dangerous.

Then Nate asks us why we do this if not for someone like him and I'm confused. When Nate talks, it's like he's talking about himself, the good guy who's family didn't deserve the pain they got. But he is right, maybe we don't all do this for the same reasons, but I don't do this for money anymore. I'm not sure why I do it exactly, but it's not the same as it was in the beginning. I don't do this just for the love of money and exhilaration anymore, I actually like that we help people and sometimes we get a little revenge which is fun. Hardison and Eliot get on board with the idea and Tara and I don't say anything so it looks like we're going to step in and get Bonano's the justice he deserves and I guess that's right, it's what we do, we help people who can't help themselves.

—-

I'm standing up on the rooftop ready to jump, listening to Eliot bait Hardison and I'm a little annoyed at being alone when I could be off playing with one of them, which is why I tell Hardison that I like his costumes. I've had fun every time we pretending to be something together. Both of them keep me entertained not like when I laying in a duct by myself unable to talk waiting for the perfect opportunity. I mean I love sneaking into places, but sometimes it can get boring, hence the sleeping.

Oh well, at least I get to jump off the roof this time. Getting into the office was simple, but then that annoying lady shows up and Tara has to walk me through a cover story. I wish I could just think of these things on my own, but Tara does a good job, maybe better than Sophie because she doesn't do the whole getting into character crap that I don't really think helps me.

I do get to make angry phone calls with Hardison though and that cheers me up. I try to think of things to say about the Beavers moving and end up talking in Spanish which seems to surprise him for some reason. I don't really know why. I've travelled the world. I can't be remembered as the American, English speaking blond girl. I speak several languages. Archie thought it was important and I found them pretty easy to learn. He told me I had an ear for languages. I guess that's a good thing.

I don't like Nate's plan. I think he's going to far this time and someone is going to get hurt. The plan isn't safe and there isn't a good way out. That feeling gets worse when I find the guns and then we have to blow up Lucille in order to save them. Even though the explosion was fun, I felt bad about Hardison losing the van. It was a part of the team. I got that even if no one else did so on a last minute impulse I kissed it goodbye. It had done a good job for us. Then Hardison goes a little too far like normal and won't get into the car. Finally, I yell at him to get in with everyone else and he moves to sit next to me. We really need to have a talk about priorities.


	28. Maltese

A/N: I'm moving, starting a new job, temporarily living apart from my husband and NaNoWriMo is about to start so I'm sorry for the extremely slow updating lately but I promise it will get better in a few weeks. Also as always reviews/comments are appreciated. :)

Standing out on the sidewalk like this makes me feel really exposed and it just gets worse when Hardison starts going on about how our covers are blown and Nate isn't immediately sure where we should go or what we should do. I don't like it when we don't have a plan. People think I'm impulsive but I don't do things without a plan. Sometimes I form my plan in the space of 3 minutes like when I stole the David statute, but sometimes it takes weeks to plan appropriately. It's the reason I've never been caught and none of my crimes are actually linked back to me

Finally Nate announces that we will go to the same hotel where they are staffing the mayor and immediately that makes perfect sense to me. When Tara drops her towel to get into the hotel room, I'm just as impressed as Eliot is though probably for slightly different reasons. I mean Tara is hot and I can totally appreciate that even if I'm not interested in her that way, but seriously she just stood naked in a hotel hallway where anyone might see her. That's more ballsy than any form of nudity I've ever done and I'm pretty carefree about such things.

When I get the opportunity to mess with Hardison, it really brightens up my day. He gets really flustered when I put the porn on. I don't really get what the big deal is but I know it bothers him and that's just funny to me.

But just as quickly, Nate tries to bring me back down again. I don't get his problem lately but we don't have time for this. At least drunk Nate could be counted on before. He needs to get it together before we have to let him go. Eliot and pretty much tell him so. I hope it gets through to him

Nate tells us we're going to steal the mayor and I get a little gleeful. I've never stolen a politician before. There's never been a reason to. This should be fun, but easy. In fact it takes us maybe 5 minutes to come with a solid plan and I get to dress up like a maid. I keep the costume of course.

Then, I get to take Tara to break in with me and we're using the air ducts which she's never done before so i'm excited to show her, but she ruins it by making me think that she's a traitor. I don't want to believe it but Hardison wouldn't be wrong about a picture. Though to be fair, I've never dropped anyone off a roof before and Tara doesn't even make it difficult. I really don't get why people are always so surprised by how strong my hands are. I literally hang off buildings by my hands... How do they think that happens? Luckily, she's not a traitor and I don't have to kill her because I would have done it. I always do what's necessary. Clearly Tara doesn't know me as well as she thinks and I'm not so adorable anymore because she's not sure if I would throw her off the roof or not. Eliot and Nate would know and they wouldn't be surprised either. Sophie and Hardison would want to believe I wouldn't do it but they would still know better.

When Sophie comes out at the end, I have a brief flash of happiness and I hug her. I can't remember the last time I ever hugged someone voluntarily. I must really like her. I mean I've known the I felt differently about her than I ever felt about any other woman I've met, but I have the sudden realization the I care about Sophie. That I would be hurt if I never saw her again, but like always, I choose not to dwell on these thoughts. It's helpful that I can see Nate is more injured than he's letting on, but I don't think anyone except Eliot notices.

I was right about this job though. It could only end badly and in the end Nate does the honest man thing and sacrifices himself to free us. I'm sad to let him go, to break up the team after we just barely got everyone together and I realize that Tara has gone and while I prefer Sophie, I enjoyed Tara in a different way. She's more adventurous, willing to try new things. I brighten a little though when I realize we're going to break Nate out of jail. I've never broken someone else out of jail. It should be a challenge.


End file.
